Hostgator 80% off turned out to be very limited!

[PlusNames]

Did anyone try to cash in on the Hostgator 80% off Black Friday deal?

Did anyone actually get the 80% off?

I place my order at 5:05 with the 80% off but when submitting the order the page timed out and then was offline for a while. When I got back on the 80% deal was gone... The same thing happened to 2 of my friends and many other people online.

I got through to support after 20 min and they said there's nothing they could do about it... the billing system crashed and the orders didn't go through...

A lot of people are suggesting that the 80% off deals were very very very limited and that it was just a marketing stunt to get visitors to the site.

I guess it worked... didn't expect something like this from hostgator...

P.S. - They said they didn't expect the huge demand... lol with all the hype they created about it in forums, on twitter, through emails, etc what did they expect? 5 people taking advantage of the deal?!?!

 

[dotthat]

They're all the same

All hosting companies are a scam - one way or the other. There is a lesson to be learnt here. Never fall for it if it sounds too good to be true. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours trying to refresh the page each time. I would say companies that offer no so called 'amazing' discount offers are better because at least they are honest. Take mediatemple.net for example. One of the most expensive hosts I've seen around. Everything is damn high priced there but they give you what they advertise.
Man this industry needs some honest companies. Who would expect Hostgator to be such a scam.
And now an expression of free speech:
aaaaaAA! OMG OMG how the hell could they do this!!

 

[zomex]

All hosting companies are a scam - one way or the other. There is a lesson to be learnt here. Never fall for it if it sounds too good to be true. I can't believe I wasted 2 hours trying to refresh the page each time. I would say companies that offer no so called 'amazing' discount offers are better because at least they are honest. Take mediatemple.net for example. One of the most expensive hosts I've seen around. Everything is damn high priced there but they give you what they advertise.
Man this industry needs some honest companies. Who would expect Hostgator to be such a scam.
And now an expression of free speech:
aaaaaAA! OMG OMG how the hell could they do this!!

I think you've been looking in the wrong places if you think every hosting company is a scam.

HostGator is a well respected host in the industry. I imagine the problems you're both seeing are due to demand on their site. While this is a problem they need to fix it's still not a good reason to call them a scam. I'm sure if you speak to their live chat or give them a call they can process the order for you.

Jack

 

[glaxxon]

Same with me, just get refreshing, but never got through. In 10 mins the offer was gone.

 

[Alex P]

I couldn't even get on the sales page for 10 mins, then I got on and it wouldn't let me confirm due to all the packages running out. Oh well, I decided to get the 3 yrs anyway, I love hostgator but kinda annoyed they didn't plan very well for this.

 

[dotthat]

I think you've been looking in the wrong places if you think every hosting company is a scam.

HostGator is a well respected host in the industry. I imagine the problems you're both seeing are due to demand on their site. While this is a problem they need to fix it's still not a good reason to call them a scam. I'm sure if you speak to their live chat or give them a call they can process the order for you.

Jack

The thing is that they advertised a time frame of 5am - 9am CST. I was there at 5:03 am CST. It read 80% off on the banner but on the order page, the prices were still at 50%. This is the first instance where I felt misled. Just after 2 minutes at 5:05 am CST, the banner again read 50% off. Second instance.
So essentially, an offer that was advertised to last for 4 hours was cancelled in under 5 minutes. Ok there was traffic and all but they could've been honest about the 80% off deal at least for the first 5 minutes. I also emailed Sales. No response. My friend waited for a long time on chat and also emailed them and they did not have anything to say.
Marketing gimmick if not a scam :]

 

[Alex P]

Luckily for me I came out of my sulk at 8am CST so I'm going to send them a ticket and see what they have to say.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

HostGator is a well respected host in the industry.

I think that it has doubtful reputation - have seen some negative and also positive customer hosting reviews about them.

Marketing gimmick if not a scam

Can agree with you according to the given information.

 

[tripflex]

I know someone else who was trying to get it at 5am too and didn't. Chances are they only offered like 2 or 1 person that deal but it still brings business to them.

That person who tried the 80% still went for the 50% when he was already there

It's all a marketing scam/ploy, don't you know what black friday is about? They advertise amazing deals but only do it for like the first 100 items, that's all they were doing at HostGator :P

 

[DU]

It's all a marketing scam/ploy, don't you know what black friday is about? They advertise amazing deals but only do it for like the first 100 items, that's all they were doing at HostGator :P

They pretty much gave 80% to anyone that asked for it after the fact though once they realized that so many people were angry.

You'll see the letter from the Founder over at slickdeals.

 

[tripflex]

They pretty much gave 80% to anyone that asked for it after the fact though once they realized that so many people were angry.

You'll see the letter from the Founder over at slickdeals.

Didn't know that...i know he got offered a 50% and took it right then, i can imagine how many people too that's crazy.

 

[DU]

Didn't know that...i know he got offered a 50% and took it right then, i can imagine how many people too that's crazy.

Different forums for different things The 80% lasted less than 5 minutes.. but I opened a problem ticket to them saying their system choked - I figured I could use that as evidence that I was there. It worked. I was reading afterwards where they just were giving 80%.

In some cases they paid more in the affiliate link than they made in the sale. Crazy.

I got the 3 year business plan (free SSL setup) for about $92.

That's a pretty awesome deal

J.

 

[AJKpeter]

The 80% lasted less than 5 minutes..

Isn't it a scam?

 

[Alex P]

They had a cyber monday deal as well for existing customers so I grabbed 3 years worth on that and about 3 weeks ago they cancelled the account and refunded my money, tried emailing but no reply. Shame I've been to busy to chase it up but I've gone off hostgator now, good hosting but they have screwed me around a lot with this.

 

[CrazyPenguin]

@ AlexP,

What was the reason they gave you for canceling your account?

 

[Alex P]

No reason, just got a email from paypal saying I had a refund.

Ive given up on it anyway ill probably look for a cheaper hosting site.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

Ive given up on it anyway ill probably look for a cheaper hosting site.

Agree with you, but read customer hosting reviews before to make any decision. Be sure that the company you are going to deal with is reliable.